Thursday, August 24, 2006

On Saturday, news from India surfaced that a local businessman, born with two fully functioning penises, checked into a New Delhi hospital to have one surgically removed. The 24-year-old from Uttar Pradesh, who had never told anyone about his predicament, requested the highly risky procedure so that he could marry and have a "normal" sex life. The condition, known as Diphallus, is so rare that there have only been 100 or so cases reported since 1609, and according to one surgeon "two fully functional penises is unheard of even in medical literature." Since both organs are developed, a blood supply to the retained penis must be maintained during the already delicate operation, or it too could be lost.